Customer Story: WA Environmental Protection Authority

Managing formal consultation online

The Environmental Protection Agency of Western Australia (WA EPA) operates a formal process called 'comment on referrals'. These are strategic consultations within defined time limits that asks the public for further input on proposals.

Previously, consultation responses were submitted on paper on via email, which meant that administrative staff needed to collate comments into Excel before showing them to assessment officers.

They wanted to modernise this process, making it more manageable for the public and staff alike, by using an online system.

WA EPA chose to use Citizen Space

Citizen Space is cloud-based software for managing your public involvement activity in one place.

As a small department with limited staff on the ground, using Citizen Space has produced many internal benefits for the EPA. By using Citizen Space, assessment officers can now view comments and statistics in real time as consultation responses come in. This has provided a more efficient way of processing user responses, allowing results to be analysed straight away.

Having Citizen Space externally hosted within Australia has also reduced the strain on limited IT resources and frees them from having to carry out updates or install new software. In addition, the simple and clean interface of Citizen Space has also helped staff to work more efficiently through consultation projects as a result of the platform’s easy-to-use structure.

The simple and clean interface of Citizen Space has helped the agency establish a clear internal cultural standard for online consultations.